Get A Roof
by The Smoose
Summary: A series of ficlets for the LJ Pepperony 100 Challenge. None are related. All in order.
1. Rich

For a while now, I've been reading various fics to do with the Pepperony 100 challenge on LiveJournal. Not having LJ myself, I've put off doing them, but yesterday I had the urge to, so here we go. I'm going to do them all in order and hopefully complete them all. So here we go.

P.S. I'm nearly done with chapter four of Razor's Edge, I promise.

* * *

Rich

Anthony Edward Stark is, without a doubt, rolling in it.

He has more money than he knows what to do with most days. He has a kick ass house, with an equally kick ass AI system that he invented himself. He has nearly every high performance sports car made in the last two years, and a garage or seven filled with classics, including a _slightly_ dented AC Cobra.

He has every single games console known to man, from an original Pong game to a yet untested XBOX handheld device, including the classic arcade machines like Space Invaders and Pac Man. His cell phone is so advanced it hasn't even been invented yet, his main computer in his workshop is actually technically five top of the range computers that he's combined into one super computer, and the security surrounding his house is custom made from the leading security company in the world.

When he dines out, it's always at the best restaurants with three Michelin Stars (he refuses to even acknowledge the two stars and is horrified that Pepper would even eat in a place that has never even been near the award system) and he not only owns several villas throughout France and Italy, but also his own private, perfectly maintained cellar filled with hundred year old wines and whiskeys.

The bed that he and Pepper sleep in has a memory foam, orthopaedic mattress, including pillows and sheets with such a high thread count they feel like air. Their en suite bathroom has the highest of high tech hygiene equipment (i.e. a shower) with so many settings and dials on it, Pepper is sure that there's one for time travel on it somewhere, and of course each have their own walk in wardrobe (though in the same room) filled with ridiculously expensive clothing and footwear.

Simply put, Tony is able to buy pretty much anything he wants to on a whim.

And yet, as he and Pepper sit curled up together on the sofa in the living room one Christmas, watching their two year old son playing with the wrapping paper from his presents (completely ignoring the actual gifts), he finds himself realising that his money has little to do with his actual wealth.

_Fin._


	2. Poor

Poor

He'd finally done it.

There was no one else to blame but himself. He'd used every ounce of stupidity he possessed and completely wrecked his entire life. He'd lost everything. The money, the company, even Rhodey had taken the armour from him. he wasn't in any state to be using it.

He raised the whiskey bottle to his lips again and drank deeply from it.

Obadiah, that bastard. He'd wormed his way into Tony's subconscious, completely disarming him from the inside out, forcing him back to his demon.

Worst of all, he'd forced him away from Pepper.

The demon dug its claws into Tony's brain and Tony took another large gulp of whiskey, as if this would drown the beast. The cold winter wind rushed around his legs, and Tony wrapped his trench around himself tighter and tried to get comfortable against the cold brick of the wall behind him.

From billionaire to tramp in mere weeks.

He took a deep, shuddering breath, his chest tight, and the demon reared its ugly head again. Tony closed his eyes and was immediately presented with Obadiah's face, grinning traitorously at him. It sent a sharp pain into his chest again and the bottle provided the necessary comfort, but then the image changed, transformed into that of Pepper.

Pepper. The look of pure _defeat_ on her face when she saw he'd relapsed. The memory of her turning away from him and just walking back the way she'd just come. And he'd known then.

Yes, he's lost his money, his company, the suit, but when Pepper left him, he lost everything.

And not even his demon could make him forget that.


	3. Red

Last one before I go to London for the week! Somehow the inspiration for this hit me while I was watching Shrek The Fourth today.

* * *

Red

Her eyes were red. Again. And this time they weren't tears of joy, they were just your regular, run of the mill, 'my-boyfriend-is-an-insensitive-selfish-jackass-who-only-ever-thinks-about-himself' tears.

She'd reminded him constantly of their anniversary, asked him if he wanted to go out, asked him if they were doing presents, which they were, and even wrote it in big fucking red letters on every calendar in the house and the one in his office at SI. He'd still forgotten. He'd even gone on a mission on the night and Jarvis was informing her now, two days later, that he was returning. And despite all that, here she stood, First Aid kit in hand, ready to patch him up when he landed. Or rather, crashed.

He picked up on it straight away.

As soon as the armour was off and he got a proper look at her, he knew something was wrong. Sure, he'd seen her bleary eyed once or twice when he came back in less than perfect condition, but this was not one of those times. Apart from a graze on his left shin and a couple bruises along his ribs, he was perfectly fine. Tired as hell, but physically fine. He watched her as she applied an alcohol free wipe to his cut and place a plaster around it, and then she sniffed and stood up. She hadn't looked at him the entire time he'd been back.

"Are you ok?" he asked softly. She nodded and hummed the affirmative as she packed away the rest of the kit, still not looking at him. "You sure?"

"I'm fine." She said, in a tone that blatantly indicated she wasn't. She stood up and put the kit back where it lived, taking slightly more time than usual.

"Pepper, I can tell something's up, just tell me." Tony was beginning to get slightly annoyed now. She was usually totally open with him about everything. "What's wrong?"

Pepper turned to him, the tear sliding down her cheek sending a chill down his spine. "You forgot our anniversary." She said quietly.

Tony relaxed visibly, breathing a sigh of relief. "That it? Jesus, I was thinking all kinds of horrible things Pep."

He realised roughly two seconds later that this wasn't the right thing to say, around the same time that Pepper applied her 'You Did Not Just Say That' face.

"Is that it?" she quoted back to him. "Is that it? Tony, I've been reminding you for weeks about this. Five years is a long time, or don't you care?"

Tony looked at her disbelievingly. "Uh, in case you hadn't noticed, I've been a little busy over the past few days, you know, saving people's live and stuff?" he wafted a hand at the suit.

"Which you left for on the night of our anniversary!" Pepper's voice was raising now, as was the colour in her cheeks. "I don't mind that you had to go, I don't even mind that the dinner I made went to waste because of it or that you didn't get me anything. That I can deal with, but the fact that you forgot it entirely speaks volumes about this relationship."

"What the hell?" Tony stood as quickly as he could with the pain in his chest. "Pepper, it's a date on a calendar. God I didn't even realise you cared so much."

"That's just it Tony." She spat. "I remembered. I remember your birthday, I remember each of your parent's birthdays, their wedding and death anniversaries. I remember Rhodey's on your behalf, and you don't realise I care." She laughed darkly. "Sometimes you make me wonder what the hell we're doing, you don't even know me." She turned to leave and Tony jumped forward and grabbed her upper arm.

"You think I don't know you?" he asked through gritted teeth. "You think I don't know that you hate the bed covers wrapped around your feet? Or that you hate to go out when it's rained the night before because there might be snails around? You think I don't see the little jaw locking thing you do if you see a snail so you don't scream? How about the fact that you used to dress one of your pillows with my shirt before you moved in, or that your lip starts twitching right before you sneeze?" he was still looking at her with inexplicable anger. "You think I don't know that the first thing you do when I leave in the suit is tidy the workshop so you don't have to think about it? Or that you cry like a baby when you watch Disney films on your own but never with other people?"

Tony sighed and looked away from her for a second, as if trying to find the words to say next. Pepper took the time to wipe the steady stream of tears from her face.

"Pepper, I'm forgetful. You know this about me when you met me. You knew this while you were still my assistant." He stepped closer to her. "I love you. I know you better than I know myself. I may forget dates, but I swear I remember everything important to me, and all of those things involve you." He framed her face with his hands and wiped her eyes with his thumbs. "And I'll try harder to remember the other stuff too, ok?"

Pepper sniffed and nodded slowly before wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him. He placed a kiss to her neck and buried his nose in her hair.

"I don't like fighting with you." She mumbled.

"Me either." Tony whispered. "Let's not do it again."

_Fin._


	4. Black

Hey, I'm back from my jolly jaunt back to my hometown of London! Missed me? Didn't think so.

So yeah, this was going to be pretty cheerful and deep when I started writing it, but for some reason Season 6 of Buffy flashed through my brain towards the end, so I ended up with a 'Back-from-the-dead-Buffy' spin on it.

* * *

Black

Blackness.

That's all he could see. Or couldn't see.

He could hear just fine, could hear the wind whistling overhead, could hear the sporadic electronic fizzing of the Arc Reactor and it's victim lying below. He could even hear someone shouting his name.

He couldn't hear his heartbeat though.

He tried to open his eyes, but he either lacked the energy or they were indeed open and he was in some kind of cruel limbo. He tried to lift his arms but met the same result.

The voice got louder, and he suddenly realised that it had been a while since he'd taken a breath, but his body had apparently forgotten how to do that too. A light flashed dimly through the darkness and then away again, but it was as if his entire surroundings had been illuminated. His parents were there. Wherever there was. They were together, they looked happy, and they were walking towards him.

It was as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. No more stress, no more worry, no more trying to prove himself a better man by ridding the world of his creations, and best of all, no more Iron Man. He was finally going home. They were so close. He tried to raise his hand to reach for his father, but his arm still wouldn't move. He looked down and saw he was still in the suit.

And then the weight came back, and so did the air in his lungs. He gasped for breath and his parents vanished.

"Tony!" Pepper's voice came from above him. Startled, he gazed up and saw her kneeling over him, an un-working miniature reactor held in one hand, the other placed over the one in his chest. He could see the worry on her face, the fear as she babbled something about Agent Coulson and an ambulance.

He could hear the wind, the Arc Reactor, and the final electronic spitting of the Iron Monger suit.

And it was as if the blackness had engulfed him again.

_Fin._

_

* * *

_

I find it funny I set out to write these with mass amounts of humour, and none of them have been so far. Awesome.


	5. Blue

Ok, so to continue with the failing to make each ficlet cheerful, I give you this! Which I re-wrote about thirty seconds after I'd finished. And then once again about halfway through that one. Typical.

P.S. You can all blame Blue Eyes Cryin In The Rain by Willie Nelson for this.

* * *

Blue

Her eyes were one of the first things he'd noticed when she's stormed into his office that fateful day. Full of determination, pride, and a smidgen of fear, which she corrected with a healthy dose of 'pepper spray'. They were an intriguing shade of blue and green that captivated him straight away. Gradually over the years, he'd grown accustomed to the way her determination and pride, which had at first blindsided him, but her eyes were always something he couldn't quite get used to.

When he'd come back from Afghanistan, her eyes once again drew him in. He'd been looking forward, aching for them since he'd been rescued, but when he saw the tears pooling in them, it felt as if the shrapnel in his chest had shifted. They'd both shrugged it off with a joke about job hunting, but he silently vowed to himself never to make her eyes look like that again.

But Tony Stark wasn't very good at keeping his promises, even less so when Iron Man had something to do with it. He'd gone missing again, and she hadn't heard about his death until three days after his body was found. She hadn't broken until the funeral, when she was staring at his coffin being lowered into the ground. The weather reflected the atmosphere of the crowd gathered to pay their last respects, damp and overcast, and Pepper stood at the forefront, thinking about everything they'd been through over the years, those eyes that had held him down, those beautiful blue/green eyes, crying in the rain.

_Fin._


	6. Green

To celebrate my buying a Goo Goo Dolls ticket, here be a fic. Enjoy!

* * *

Green

Pepper had been staring at Tony for the last ten minutes.

They'd just driven to his New York house from Flushing Meadows and the first thing that Tony had done after showering and changing was to rush to the kitchen and prepare a chlorophyll smoothie. Pepper didn't like this.

"I thought you weren't dying anymore." She said softly as Tony shoved the ingredients into his blender. He turned as he put the lid on and smiled reassuringly.

"I'm not. I told you, new battery." He tapped his RT and pressed the button on the blender. It whirred into life and drowned Pepper out. "What?" he asked when he noticed she was still speaking.

"I said why are you still drinking that stuff if you're ok?" she pointed to the dark green goop in the blender.

Tony plucked the blender out of its stand and poured the mixture into a glass. "It's just a preventative measure. I'm fine, really." He smiled again and lifted the glass to his lips, taking a large gulp.

Pepper walked over to him, staring at her hands, until she was toe to toe with him.

"Pep?"

"Can I see?" she asked quietly.

Tony swallowed the sizable lump in his throat and put the glass down on the tile surface behind him. Hands now free, he unbuttoned his short starting from the top, and then removed it, letting it crumple to the floor next to his feet. Pepper's eyes widened and he saw her jaw twitch.

"It's not as bad as it looks, and it's getting better." He whispered.

Pepper took a deep breath and raised a hand to trail along the thin silver webbing that spread out from the centre of his chest. She blinked away tears and laid her hand flat against his right pectoral.

"How long have you been like this?"

Tony gulped. "I'd say about four months, give or take." He said gruffly. "But like I said, this is nothing."

Her hand ghosted over his new RT and she smiled sadly, a tear slipping from her eye. "I can't believe I almost lost you and I never-" she gulped down oxygen and moved her hands up to his neck before pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "I love you, ok? You know that right?"

Tony's heart fluttered and he smiled at her. "Yeah," he exhaled and nuzzled her nose with his. "I know."

* * *

I don't even know. All I know is I'll be in the same room as Johnny Rzeznik on November 12th.


	7. Grey

Just a little thing whilst I wait for my mum get out of the shower so I can wash my bike.

* * *

Grey

Tony had known Pepper long enough to see through her poker face.

He could tell when she was secretly happy with him, she tended to bite the right side of her bottom lip just a little. He could tell when she was pissed with him, she'd bite the _left_ side of her bottom lip and her nostrils would flare slightly, and he knew when she was upset and didn't want to show it, she'd be extremely quiet most of the day, getting things done with even more efficiency than usual just so she could get the hell out of there ASAP.

This was one of those times.

He'd tried to engage her in conversation no less than twelve times in the past five hours, and nothing doing. She'd left him to himself in the workshop and gone back to her office as soon as she'd done whatever it was that she needed him for. After the thirteenth time she did so, he grabbed her wrist as she tried to exit the workshop and pulled her back to him.

"Ok, spill it Potts, what's up?"

Pepper looked startled. "What do you mean?"

"You." He said, letting go of her wrist. "You've been avoiding me like the plague all day, what's wrong? What did I do?"

Pepper sighed. "It's not you, Tony, it's me-"

"Seriously?" he said, smirking. "That's the line you're going with?"

She tilted her head and gave him an incredulous look.

"Ok, sorry, I'm listening."

"No, it's nothing, really." Pepper started backing up towards the door again. "It's just a stupid girl thing."

"Come on Potts, it can't be that bad."

"It's not."

"So why are you so upset?"

"I'm not...upset, it's just..." she sighed again and covered her face with her hands. "Mmm gdng ld."

"What was that?" Tony asked, pulling her hands away from her face.

"I'm getting old." She mumbled, staring at the floor.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I...I found a grey hair this morning."

Tony pressed his lips together, trying to prevent a laugh erupting. Pepper saw this and a murderous look flashed across her eyes. "Thanks, Tony." She turned on her heel and stormed towards the door.

"No, Pep, wait." He grabbed her wrist again.

"What was that?" she snapped at him. "Sorry, Grandma can't hear you over the sound of her aged bones creaking."

That did make him laugh, which was a mistake when she tried to break free again. He wrapped his arm around her waist. "No, ok, I'm sorry Pepper. Look," he forced her chin up to look at him. "Pepper Potts, you are still exactly as young and as beautiful as the day I met you, if not more so." he smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

She stared at him for a second and the corner of her mouth lifted slightly. "Good save." She said and wrapped her arms around his neck for a hug.

Tony chuckled into her shoulder. "I thought so."

* * *

Yeah, so I used the end of another fic for the end of this. Sue me. Actually, don't, I have no funds. And hey, look, I took possibly the most depressing colour theme and made it happy for a change!


	8. Brown

See what thinking in the shower can do to you?

* * *

Brown

Pepper hated the colour brown. It was boring, dull, dirty, horrible…she just plain didn't like it, ever since Harry Littman had rubbed a clump of dirt into her sun-yellow dress in third grade, she _loathed_ the colour.

Everything eventually goes brown. Fruit goes brown when it's bad, toast goes brown right after its hit that lovely golden colour, even relationships seem to hit a brown point. It's just a pointless colour.

And yet she still couldn't understand why when she looked into those eyes, none of that seemed to matter.

_Fin._


	9. Gold

Struggled for days to write this, and it literally wrote itself while I was listening, of all things, to 'I Don't Wanna Know' by Mario Winans. Don't judge me for my obscure taste, I have a team of professionals I employ to do that for me, they call themselves 'Friends'.

* * *

Gold

He didn't want to know, and she never told him.

She'd been happier over the last few months, and he'd picked up on it. It was impossible not to. The way she'd rush around on her own personal high, humming to herself as she went about her working day. He was happy for her, of course, and he'd thought there was a reason behind it, but he didn't ask, it wasn't his place, and she seemed too distracted to comment on it.

So they did what we all do, they ignored it. Pushed it to one side and got on with their respective lives.

Not knowing and not telling.

The day they came to work with twin gold bands on their fingers, he knew. And she knew he knew. How could he not? He was a genius, and it didn't take one to figure it out. But he still didn't ask. It still wasn't his place. And he was happy for her, so he did what any man healing from a broken heart would do.

He ignored it. He pushed it to one side, and got on with his life.

_Fin._


	10. White

This is purely a guess, but from the way people were dressed in Afghanistan during Iron Man, I think it was winter. Say, for arguments sake, mid-January. Tony was kidnapped for three months, and Iron Man 2 was six months after the end of Iron Man. I know Tony's brilliant, but I'm thinking it probably would have taken him maybe a month to perfect the Iron Man armour. Add that up, and we have October by my calculations, ergo: winter again. I realise that it really didn't look like winter in New York during the Expo, but it's my fic, so stfu.

Also: spectacularly sorry if you're waiting on an update for Snuff, I'm going to have to type it all out again because I don't think I'm going to get my computer going again. Fml.

Finally: I'm quite proud of this one…

* * *

White

Pepper was alone when she awoke the morning after the explosion at the Stark Expo. At first, all the pondered on was where the hell she was, until it dawned on her that she was in Tony's New York apartment, in Tony's bed, with no Tony, but in the split second it took her to gather this information and start picking fight or flight, she also registered a cold breeze blowing down the back of her neck. She rolled onto her back and squinted through the dim light. The balcony door was ajar and the drapes were rustling as a rough winter wind rustled past. She didn't remember the door being open when they'd gone to bed, and by the looks of things it was still pretty dark outside, so it must still be really early.

She was about to get up and investigate, when the door opened a fraction more and Tony squeezed his way back into the bedroom. He shivered as he closed the doors again, locking them as well, and made that peculiar noise that people often do when coming in from the cold. As he turned back to the bed, he noticed Pepper was awake and he unconsciously broke out into a grin, quickening his steps back to the bed.

"Hey," he said when he'd rounded the bed and jumped back under the covers, snuggling up to her and stealing a slow kiss. Pepper responded but jumped back when his hand crept up her side.

"Jesus, Tony, your hand is freezing." She looked up at him and noticed white flecks in his hair. "Is it snowing?" she asked, raising her hand to touch his windswept mop.

Tony nodded, still smiling. "It's beautiful; like you but small and cold." he nuzzled against her nose and kissed her again, just to prove he could, she guessed.

She broke away from him and smiled. "I am small, and if you keep feeling me up with those hands I'll be cold too."

He laughed at this and brought his hands up from under the covers, cupped in front of his mouth and breathed into them. She ruffled his hair again as the snow began to melt and mould the strands together. "How come you were standing out in the snow?" she asked as she continued to mess with his hair – just to prove she could.

Tony stopped blowing on his hands and shrugged. "I like the snow. We never see it back home and I haven't seen any since I left Afghanistan."

Pepper squinted at him. "It snowed in Afghanistan?"

Tony nodded. "Yeah, there was tons of it. Apparently it gets really heavy during winter. The kids out there were enamoured with it." He slumped back into his pillow and wrapped a now warm hand around her waist, drawing her to him and letting out a contented sigh. "I used to love winter when I was a kid. The snow was the best part."

"Yeah?" Pepper said softly, as if she was frightened anything louder would startle him.

"Mmm." He mumbled into her hair. "Me and Dad used to have snowman building competitions, snowball fights, the whole shebang, then we'd come back home for hot chocolate that Mom made herself…" he trailed off and Pepper wrapped her free arm around his neck and pulled him closer.

"Sounds perfect." She said. Tony merely nodded against the top of her head. "They'd be really proud of you, you know."

She felt him freeze against her and she worried for a moment that she'd said the wrong thing, but he hugged her impossibly closer and made a noise that could have been a purr. They stayed that way for a few minutes, just enjoying the warmth and closeness.

"Tony?" Pepper spoke up after a while.

"Hmm?" he mumbled, half asleep again.

"You've built an Iron Man shaped snowman on the balcony, haven't you."

"…maybe."

_Fin._


	11. Morning

Inspired somewhat by Susan Downey's comment on waking up next to her husband each morning. Too cute for actual words. Trust.

I'm also quite proud of this one because of the cuteness factor.

* * *

Morning

Before Pepper, Tony could safely say that mornings were the worst part of his day. Before Pepper, he would either wake up alone, or more likely, realise he'd overslept and had to make awkward conversation with whatever bimbo he'd brought home the night before. Before Pepper, he would get up when he pleased, assuming he'd been to bed at all, throw on what he wanted and usually slope off down to his lair, much to the annoyance of that month's fresh assistant.

Before Pepper, he very rarely saw any point in getting up at all.

But after Pepper, well, that was a different matter entirely. He would wake up and the first thing he would see that morning would be the gorgeous fiery hair he'd grown to love, or the smattering of pale freckles that drunkenly danced across her nose that only _he _knew about, because only _he_ was allowed to get that close. With Pepper, there was no more awkward conversation, simply the giddy excitement of seeing her after eight solid hours of not being able to. He got up with her, because the only other alternative was going back to bed and doing that not seeing her thing, and he didn't like doing that in the first place. He still put on what he wanted, but that was because she _knew _what he wanted to wear because she knew what looked good on him, and though he still ended up in the lab most of the time, he always managed to get things done that needed to be, and he always stopped to eat and just rest for a while. Then, at the end of every day, they'd go to bed together, properly together, and he slept more peacefully, knowing that no matter how long he closed his eyes for, she'd be the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes for the rest of his days.

And if that wasn't a reason for getting up in the mornings, he didn't know what was.

_Fin._


	12. Dusk

Dusk

If you asked Tony Stark to pick a point of the day that he loved the most, he'd pick dusk.

The night was fun, but there was always that sense of disappointment as he brought home his latest conquest. Always the nagging voice in the back of his head saying 'Too easy' or, more frequently now, 'That's _enough_'.

The dawn and pre-noon hours usually brought hangovers, and painful memories of the previous night's activities, most of which he'd slip away from before they too awoke.

Noon always brought stacks of paperwork and other grown up things that he just did _not_ want to deal with.

Mid afternoon was usually a close second, because mid afternoon usually brought a lunchtime drink, and more often than not a fantastically brilliant idea that he'd set to work on that very instant.

But dusk was his favourite. It used to bring him the calm before the insanity of the night, and was usually just a little more buzzed than the afternoon, but now it was his favourite for a different reason, because now he noticed that when the sunset hit the ocean just right, it flashed a shade of red that set his heart on fire and made his stomach do back-flips that only one other being in the world could make him do.

Because he couldn't admire her like he could the sunset.

_Fin._


	13. High

High

He was floating. Literally floating.

Everything was all…fuzzy. Shaded around the edges. There was only him, everyone else below looking like ants. His head felt heavy and light. He felt like he could quite easily mix up the elixir of life, but at the same time couldn't remember the answer to two plus two. He felt like he could fly, even without the suit, but couldn't for the life of him move a muscle.

He felt like he was high, but no drug could give you this experience, nothing could ever come close to this, this was perfect. The single greatest moment of his existence.

"Tony?"

Tony blinked and looked around. Pepper was standing in the doorway, robe loosely tied around her, looking exhausted but still angelically beautiful.

"Pepper, you gotta try this." Tony whispered, rushing over to her and gently wrapping his arm around her, leading her back to where he'd been standing. "It's insane."

"I know, Tony." Pepper said through a smile.

"No, but you gotta hold it." He said, practically vibrating with giddiness. "It's like another plane of existence." He poked his hand back through the Plexiglas box again and watched as the small figure inside fidgeted, squinting at the oddly shaped thing nearly as big as itself.

"Try giving birth to one." She laughed, watching his face as their son, seemingly recognizing Tony's hand, reached out and latched onto his thumb with both of his own tiny hands. Tony exhaled shakily and a broad grin broke out on his face.

Who needed alcohol with a high like this?


	14. Low

Low

He'd felt like a man at the time.

He knew that this would piss her off, make her mad, make her _cry_, and he'd gotten off on it. So had the busty red head he'd picked up in her place. The petty argument he'd taken to heart and caused him to go out searching for a new lay was forgotten as he reached completion and rushed back to Earth again. He'd still felt like a man as he left the woman gasping and glowing with the after effects, returning home stinking of sex and just pure wrongness.

He'd even felt like a man when he told her the next morning without an ounce of remorse in his voice, merely as if he was commenting on the weather. 'Hey Pepper, it's a lovely day out, and oh yeah, I totally banged some other chick last night.'

It was only when he saw everything he'd expected to see on her face, saw just how low he was prepared to go just to feel like a man, that he realised he wasn't anything like a man.

_Fin._


	15. Strong

Strong

Pepper was always the thing that made him strong.

Sure, he had brains. He could have sat down with Einstein and had a full blown, extremely-confusing-to-everyone-else-conversation, he could glance at a string of ones and zeroes and tell you exactly which one was making your high tech awesomness do that killing spree thing it was doing.

And sure, he had a nifty suit of armour that could not only stop your high tech awesomeness doing that killing spree thing, but it could also stop evil CFO's in giant robot suits trying to take over your company, crazy Russian guys in giant robot suits with whips trying to avenge their dead fathers, and pretty much giant robots in general built by douchebag rival companies.

But it was Pepper that reminded him that no matter what happened, he still had a heart, and without that knowledge, he was just as weak as the rest.

_Fin._


	16. Weak

Weak

For some reason, she'd decided staying at the mansion would be a good idea. Just for the one night, just to make sure he was ok. She knew though, if she said anything about keeping an eye on him, he'd tell her to go home, Lord knows he's probably had a hundred different psych evaluations and whatnot since they found him in the desert and a lot of people telling a lot _more_ people to keep an eye on him, so to cover herself, she simply said she was too tired to make the drive home. He hadn't fought her on it, and she hadn't expected him to, but he hadn't made the customary lewd comment about her spending the night. He'd simply nodded and told her she should get some sleep, _she'd_ been through enough. She was so shocked that she didn't even notice that he'd wandered off to bed around about the same time she did.

So now here she lay in the guest room closest to his, listening to some abomination that he'd call music blaring out of his room. She'd managed to shrug it off so far, but it was pushing three in the morning and she needed some sleep. Throwing the duvet off herself, she stood and shuffled over to the door, pulling it open and wincing as the screeching guitar and booming drums grew louder. Thank God the mansion was a good mile away from anyone else.

Creeping softly -a fairly useless action considering the amount of noise surrounding her- across the hall, cracked Tony's door open and peeked inside. Tony was sat in the middle of his bed, dressed in his boxers and a grey tee, legs crossed, head down, with his fingers locked behind his head and his elbows on his knees, in what appeared to be an extremely uncomfortable position to sustain for very long. At first she wondered if he was asleep, but he suddenly lifted his head sharply and just about jumped out of his skin when he noticed she was there, nearly falling off the bed in his haste to get up. The music's volume immediately lowered and she watched him as he calmed himself down.

"Shit, sorry." He murmured. "I forgot you were here." He ran a hand through his hair and his eyes flitted around the room. Pepper walked into his room properly and closed the door.

"Tony, are you ok?" she asked softly. His expression immediately changed from nervous and unsure to completely 'Tony Stark'.

"Course." He said, smiling. "I just…I can't sleep is all." His smile twitched and he laughed.

"What?" she stepped closer to him as she saw the façade begin to slip inch by inch.

"Nothing, it's just…" he laughed again and rubbed the palms of his hands into his eyes which were growing red. "You know, all the time I was in that cave, one of the few things I was looking forward to when I got home was sleeping in my own bed. Soft sheets, fluffy pillows, freshly laundered smell, you know?" he looked at her and gestured to the bed in question. "And now…I can't sleep in the damn thing. It's too big, too soft." He let out a sound that could have been a laugh, but was more likely a sob as it was followed by some tears.

"Tony-"

"Why d'you think that is?" he asked her, wiping his eyes again. "I mean, why me? You know? I went through hell in that cave. For three months all I had was a cot and the clothes on my back, and now I'm back, now I have everything I was missing, I can't get used to it. It's like my body and my head are competing. My body wants to crash but my head knows something's different." He shrugged and leant against the wall behind him. "Why can't I just be happy with what I have?"

Pepper could have sworn she heard her own heart crack at this. She'd expected him to come back different, it was inevitable, but this she was completely unprepared for. She would have preferred him drinking himself into oblivion, at least then there was some indication he still cared enough about himself to try and quell the memories, but now he was just letting them wash over him, absorb him. This entire situation had taken a bigger toll on him than he'd let on, and the cracks were beginning to show.

Taking a deep breath, Pepper walked forwards towards the bed, grabbed the pillows and duvet and ripped them off the bed. She then dropped the pillows on the floor and held her hand out to him. He stared at it.

"Tony." She whispered. "Come lie down."

"What are you doing?" he asked, genuinely interested.

She leant forwards and grabbed his hand, tugging him away from the wall and down to the floor to lie down.

"I'm making the world a little smaller for a while." She said, draping the duvet over him and joining him under it. She shuffled closer to him and stared him right in the eye. "When I was little and I had a nightmare or something, my mom used to make a bed on the floor of my bedroom and we'd sleep on that. It always made me feel safer because of the closeness. I knew nothing could get at me." Her eyes shifted to the softened glow of that weird blue thing in his chest. "For now, there's just us, the pillows, the duvet and the floor, ok? That's it. So just close your eyes and go to sleep. There's nothing else to worry about."

Tony swallowed. "What about tomorrow? What happens when I open my eyes?"

Pepper smiled softly and reached under the duvet for his hand again. "You just follow my lead, I'll keep you safe." She squeezed his hand and turned over, smushing her head into the pillow to try and get comfortable, extremely aware that she was trying to sleep on a hardwood floor.

She felt Tony shift towards her more and held her breath when his arm wrapped around her waist and his head bury into her back. His breath was warm on her neck and she felt the tears slip from his eyes onto her.

"God, I missed you so much Pepper." He sighed, voice low.

Pepper closed her eyes and grabbed his hand tight. She let him cry on her, let him have his moment of weakness.

Because if he couldn't show it to her, he was done for.

_Fin._


	17. Rough

Rough

Pepper always hated beard burn.

Ever since her first boyfriend and grown a little chin fluff and she'd left him that day with a large red mark on her neck, she abhorred the raw, rough, itchy feeling it left her with. It was uncomfortable, it didn't leave for days, and more importantly, _everyone _could see that she'd been necking with someone.

So when, after her first time with Tony, she noticed the familiar angry pattern on her neck, she was surprised to find herself smiling and not making any effort to cover it up.

Maybe it wasn't the beard burn she hated.

_Fin._


	18. Smooth

Yet another one that bothered me for days when I couldn't think of anything, and then bang! It hit me.

* * *

Smooth

The first time Pepper properly felt the Iron Man armour, she was amazed at just how smooth it was. Obviously, it wasn't going to feel like sandpaper or anything, but she'd just never expected the near silk like feeling. If she was quite honest, she hadn't expected him to actually pay so much attention to the detailing of it. He could barely be bothered to take care of himself, and yet he put so much effort into this.

It was hours later, when she was watching him carefully remove each piece himself, briefly checking it over before placing it gently in a pile on the floor, that she realised he was taking care of himself through the armour. The armour was the only thing about him that he could make completely perfect. No flaws, no imperfections. He could be beaten up as much as possible and he'd still be able to fix and repair and _replace_ the damage.

And he did it because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't repair himself.


	19. Soft

Wrote five different versions of this and deleted them all, until finally settling on this when I found it written on a scrap of paper from ages ago. Note: cleaning your room once in a while is useful!

Also, might be the last one for a while, cos I'm all caught up with the ones I cranked out over one weekend a couple weeks ago, so until I get a surge of inspiration, have fun waiting.

* * *

Soft

There were many sides to Tony Stark.

There was the side he showed the media; the hard faced, suave industrialist and superhero. Brave, fearless, unmoving. A force to be reckoned with. That was the image they plastered across the television and newspapers, and the image he presented to the public. His poker face.

There was the side he showed – or used to show – to his adoring female fan base. Sexy and cool. Masculine and fun loving. Adept lover and pure alpha male. His reputation depended on keeping up this façade, and no matter how much he denied it, it _was_ a façade.

And then there was the side he kept closed off from the rest of the world, the side he only let Pepper see. His softer side. The side that cried at Disney movies; the side that always made sure he didn't hurt her with his Arc when they made love; the side that flipped out and practically destroyed the mansion when he thought he'd lost his father's pocket watch when she'd sent it to be cleaned.

The side that made him more of a man that any of the others. The side that made him human.


	20. Skin

Ugh, I need to stop re-writing things half way through. Also, appreciate this, I stayed up til 1am to finish it. I have to be up at half six. Toodles.

* * *

Skin

Over the ten years Pepper and Tony worked together, despite how many times they tried to deny it, there were dozens of times where they almost crossed _that line, _more so after that oh so tense moment on the balcony of the Walt Disney Hall.

One particular time, he'd come home from a very tough mission and just wanted to crash. Unfortunately, upon removing the armour, he realised he had a few minor problems to deal with first.

"Sir, you appear to have a number of deep abrasions on your lower back." Jarvis informed him once he had removed his neoprene under suit.

"No sweat Jarvis." Tony mumbled. He shuffled over to the medical cabinet and pulled out a few sanitizer pads and some band aids.

"Sir, I don't believe you will be able to reach-"

"I said I got it." Tony sighed, ripping open one of the pads and bending his arm at impossibly awkward angle to try and reach the deep cut on his back. After a few attempts, he swivelled around and tried again from the other side of his back, craning his neck to try and see what he was doing.

"Need a hand?" Pepper's voice came from the stairwell behind him.

"I'm fine." Tony mumbled, still straining to wipe at the cut. He managed to swipe at it, holding the pad in the tips of his fingers. And then he dropped the pad. "Dammit!" he sighed and tipped his head back, closing his eyes. He was tired, pissed off, and in pain. He wanted to go to bed; he wanted to sleep for about a week, he wanted-

His eyes snapped open when he felt the pad dab at one of the cuts on his back. His entire body froze as it happened again, a long, slow wipe along the stinging length of skin. And then he felt her fingertips trail the same path and he shivered.

"Stay still." She whispered. He obeyed.

The pad smoothed across the skin of his lower back, followed by her fingertips. Tony's eyes slipped shut again as he let the sensations wash over him. The usual sting of the antiseptic was dulled by her hands, and it was doing wonderfully funny things to his stomach and…lower portions of his anatomy. As the pad reached the right side of his ribs, it hit a ticklish spot and he twitched. Pepper's hand latched onto his hip, nails brushing at the skin above the waistband of his boxers.

"I said stop moving." She said sternly. He wanted to reply back with something witty and Stark-tastic, but his brain had melted and was rapidly flowing south, so he could only make an incoherent, half cough, half groan.

Everything disappeared. There was nothing but him, Pepper, and her skin on his, however little there was of it. It felt like hours, and at the same time seconds, and then a different sensation, what he guessed was the band aid, and that was followed by a glorious, tingling, stinging, torturous press of her _lips_ on that band aid, followed by another and another, until she _squeezed _his hip again.

"All done." She said, still in that low, soft voice.

Tony blinked and released a breath he wasn't aware of holding. He slowly spun around and his eyes locked with hers automatically.

"Pepper…" he said, exhaling heavily, his breath blowing a lock of hair across her face.

They stood there for a few seconds, or it could have been days, he wasn't sure, before Pepper raised her hand and touched the edge of his left sideburn and trailed her fingertips down the skin of his jaw. He gulped as she reached his chin and her nail scratched lightly at the hair there, before she withdrew it.

"You should be more careful, Tony." She said, before turning on her heel and departing the workshop.

And he knew _exactly_ what she meant.

_Fin._


	21. Hands

So, hi. You can all thank a mind blowingly cute post from Tumblr for this. If she's on here, thank you iwantcupcakes! It actually made me well up a bit.

* * *

Hands

Pepper awoke one morning to the peculiar sensation of her fingers being played with. Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked away the blurry weirdness to see Tony staring avidly at her right hand and idly stroking his index finger along her palm, into the gaps between each finger, and then up each digit before trailing back down to her palm. Once he completed thumb to pinkie, he made the return journey, taking just as much care to trail along every inch of skin in his path.

"What are you doing?" she mumbled, still enraptured with the slow, almost seductive movements. He turned his head towards her when she spoke but didn't stop.

"What do you think of my hands?" he asked her softly, turning his attention back to both appendages.

Pepper furrowed her brow. "What?"

"My hands." He said again, twiddling his fingers to show her what a hand was. "What do you think of them?"

Still confused, and thinking it was still far too early to be asking such simple-yet-complicated questions, she cleared her throat and spoke. "Well you're very…adept at using them."

Tony smirked. "That's not what I meant. Just look at them for a second, what do you think?"

She looked at his hands. It still didn't make sense.

"They're ok…" she conceded.

"Ok?" he asked, shocked at her blasé answer. "They're more than 'ok', Pepper. These hands are amazing."

Pepper rolled her eyes, wishing she'd never opened them in the first place.

"Do you want to know _why_ they're amazing?" he asked, clearly very eager to tell her.

"Yes, Tony." She sighed. "I would love to know why you think your hands are amazing."

A wide grin broke across his face. "It's quite simple, actually." He said. "It's nothing to do with what they can do, the way they look, how they feel. Nothing like that." He stopped trailing his fingers along her hand and slipped all five of his digits between hers, palm to palm, and flicked his eyes to lock onto hers. Pepper quirked an eyebrow and he kissed her hand. "It's because the space between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly."

_Fin._


	22. Glance

Don't you just love random inspiration?

* * *

Glance

It was the glances that told him Pepper wanted him.

She'd been catching his eye all night, throwing him sultry looks, gazing over the rim of her martini glass and biting her lip.

Oh yeah, she wanted him alright.

She'd made herself even more obvious when she'd 'accidentally' spilled her drink on him. Obviously, he'd been a perfect gentleman and bought her a replacement, which then turned into a very intimate conversation at the bar.

Tony sighed.

What did Johnny Depp have that he didn't?


	23. Touch

Touch

There were three things that Tony was certain of.

The first was that his ingenious plan to destroy the nuclear missile from exploding in the middle of New York hadn't worked.

The second, and the reason he knew his plan hadn't worked, was that he was currently in a coma, lying in a hospital bed.

But he also knew he was alive, and he knew this because he could feel. He could feel the slight breeze of the open window blowing lightly across his face. He could feel the blankets covering him and the needles in his arms, but more importantly, he could feel Pepper's touch. Her hand in his. Her damp cheek resting on his forearm.

And it was that more than anything else that told him he needed to wake up and feel that touch on purpose.


	24. Kiss

Yet another spur of inspiration from tumblr.

* * *

Kiss

Pepper,

There's a lot of things I love about you, mainly kissing.

Kissing you awake.

Kissing you before we go to sleep.

Kissing you during…y'know.

Kissing you randomly.

Kissing you in the dark.

Kissing you while we're walking on the beach.

Kissing you before I leave for a mission.

Kissing you when I come back.

Kissing you when one of us leaves for work (mostly when you leave for work I guess).

Kissing you while we're dancing.

Kissing you.

Kissing.

You.

Just you.

I love you.

From Tony.


	25. Hot

So…it's been a while. Thought I'd give these a crack again. Enjoy!

* * *

Hot

It had been fluttering between ninety-nine and one hundred degrees since noon broke three hours ago, and Tony was suffering for it. He was flaked out on the couch, topless and in shorts, and was now regretting ever buying the fancy leather one over a plush squishy fabric one. Stupid expensive couches. He was trying to look casual about it because a year ago when he bought the couch, she'd described this exact situation and he'd laughed it off, and he knew that if she spotted him, becoming one with the leather, he'd never live it down.

"Jarvis, can we crack a window open?" he mumbled weakly, reaching blindly for the cooler at the side of the couch but groaning when he came up empty.

"Once again, sir," Jarvis said. "Your windows don't open-"

Tony sighed heavily and sat up slowly, peeling himself off the leather. "Who's dumb idea was that?!" he asked.

"Yours, sir." Jarvis replied, practically sighing. "I've turned up the air conditioning as far as I can without overheating-"

"Overheating?" Tony asked, standing up and grabbing the cooler – which was now just a box of melting ice. "Can cold air overheat?"

"I'm going to assume that a master engineer of your calibre is asking that pedantically." The AI responded. Tony rolled his eyes and dumped the cooler on the counter in the kitchen, smiling at Pepper who was sitting at the counter with some paperwork.

"Do you really need to wear so many clothes on a day like today?" He asked her as he pulled the fridge door open, sighing as a cool breeze hit his chest. "I mean really, throw on a bikini. Or follow my lead and go as God made you." He turned his head to smirk at her.

Pepper rolled her eyes but couldn't help but respond with a smile. "I don't mind the heat. Connecticut is way more humid way more often. Sissy." She mumbled the last part and looked up at him. "You could pass me a Coke or something though."

Tony obliged and slid a can across the counter to her, loading up his cooler with ice again and placing more beers inside. "I'm gonna go hang by the pool, and by that I mean go and sit in the blistering sun next to the massive rectangle that once was water but now has turned into lava." He grinned at Pepper and saluted before heading out to do just that.

He'd just sat down on his reclining chair when he realised he'd left his cooler back in the kitchen. Sighing heavily at the unfairness of it all, he got back up and trudged back through the French doors that led into the house, only to stop dead in the doorway of the kitchen. Pepper was utilising her Coke can – not for drinking out of, but using it as an ice pack. She had it held to her neck, head thrown back as the ice cold droplets ran down her skin, down, down under her clothes to places Tony could only dream of. She brought the can around, under her chin and slid it to where her blouse was unbuttoned, sighing in relief. Tony simply stared, wide eyed the entire time, watching each droplet as it disappeared into her cleavage. And then she spotted him and the can went clattering to the ground. Tony jumped a foot into the air, eyes flicking back up to Pepper's as she frantically wiped at the droplets.

"I thought you went out to the pool!" she gasped, straightening her clothes.

Tony averted his eyes and practically ran past her, mumbling about a cold shower being a better idea.


	26. Cold

In honour of John Travolta being amazing. Short and crap but I couldn't help it.

* * *

Cold

Pepper was rudely awoken the morning after a fabulous night's sleep to the sound of Tony laughing. _Cackling _was more accurate. She'd never heard a noise like that come out of his mouth before. Puzzled, she got out of bed and grabbed her robe, heading to the source of the noise – the lounge. There Tony sat, bent double on the couch, howling as John Travolta's face was paused on his laptop.

Pepper couldn't help but smile as she approached, giving him a curious look. "Is that from the Oscars?" she asked as Tony wiped tears from his eyes. He nodded and took a deep breath.

"We left too early." He gasped before dissolving into a fit of giggles again. "Adele Dazeem!"


End file.
